Activation of exemplars and characteristics in the process of constructing social category attitudes and definitions
Sia, Tiffiny Lee
Sia, Tiffiny Lee
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Date
1996
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Abstract
The "matching representations" hypothesis holds that attitude-behavior consistency is greater when individuals have similar rather than dissimilar cognitive representations in mind at the time they behave as they had in mind at the time they reported their attitudes. Although several theories and studies of social category attitudes supported the matching representations hypothesis, they relied on a previously untested assumption about the process of constructing an attitude. The current studies examined the role played by exemplars and characteristics in the construction of a social category attitude. Three separate procedures (ambiguous anagrams, fill-in-the-blanks, and response time) supported the assumption that exemplars come to mind spontaneously as individuals assess their social category attitudes. The studies also provided mixed support for the activation of characteristics in determining an attitude. The results are interpreted as consistent with recent theory and research on the nature of attitudes. The results are compared to the predictions of associative network, schema, exemplar, and Parallel Distributive Processing (PDP) models of mental representations in social psychology.
Contents
Subject
Subject(s)
Attitude (Psychology)
Behaviorism (Psychology)
Social perception
Behaviorism (Psychology)
Social perception
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Genre
Dissertation
Description
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iv, 160 leaves
Department
Psychology